


Rebooting As Soon As I Am Able

by oliviathecf



Series: Hal's Birthday, 2020 [6]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics)
Genre: 2010s, Birthday, Character Study, Gen, I have a lot of feelings about Hal Jordan, N52, Rebirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:48:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22811893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliviathecf/pseuds/oliviathecf
Summary: It fit that he was changing so much, the platonic ideal of a birthday.
Series: Hal's Birthday, 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1634401
Kudos: 23





	Rebooting As Soon As I Am Able

**Author's Note:**

> Coincidentally, this is the one gen fic I'll write for the year. I thought about trying to force some references to ships in here but it just didn't want to happen and I'm trying to let my writing flow more naturally this year. Honestly, it felt a little forced to push it as a birthday fic haha!
> 
> I love Renegade!Hal, this is based off Hal creating his own ring after he left the Corps, which lead into Rebirth. 
> 
> Title is from Impostor Syndrome by Sidney Gish.
> 
> Enjoy!

It was impossible. That was what he was told at least, that there was no way that anyone but the Guardians could forge a Green Lantern ring.

But, still, he needed to try. Because he couldn’t let it all be lost because he gave up. It was true, he was changing, his molecules rearranging and forming into something entirely inhuman. Pure Will, every ounce of willpower in his body, manifested.

There were people that would say that he was the only human who had a shot. Hal disagreed, he thought that he had just gotten lucky. The hammer, powered by the Gauntlet, striking against rock, forging something entirely different. It was stronger than any ring he had ever worn, stronger than the impurities in his body, stronger than anything else because it was _him_ , manifested into power.

Hal wasn’t referring to himself. Of course he wasn’t, he couldn’t ever do it alone. His friends were gone, disappearing into some void, but they were always with him. And...and his dad, he was always there too. The creation of the ring wasn’t for himself, it was for all of them. The Corps, Guy, John, Kyle. His friends, his _family_ , everything was for them.

He needed to make it right, bring them back and save the world. Earn the title of hero, something he hadn’t deserved in a very long time. Not since he betrayed the Corps and then betrayed them again, becoming everything he had thought he’d hated about himself again. Abandoning his Corpsmen again, he needed to make it right.

The Lanterns were gone but he was still there, the worst choice for their last hope. Because he had let them down time and time again, the least dependable of the people he had learned to respect more than anything, they said that he could be the best of them but Hal didn’t buy it at all. He hadn’t earned that title, it was as fake as the smile he put on every morning. Hidden behind that cocky bravado that had become his most hated and loved trait.

There was only one thing that was a verifiable fact. You say the oath and you believe in it, there were no heroes in the Corps, just those who tried their best and the rest of them. And Hal tried his best, but it never seemed to be enough.

At the end of the day, he was just a man with a hammer, hitting a rock and hoping that things might change for the best.

Maybe he was just a relic of a worse past, the best they could do before a real hero had come along. Kyle was a real hero, the White Lantern. Someone who could actually save the day, who had proven himself where Hal had only proven himself as a complete failure. But Kyle was gone, just like the rest of them, he was the last chance they had.

And...and he was a Green Lantern. Above anything else, he had earned that title more than anyone, had clawed his way back up from the darkest points of his entire life, from the evil living deep in his mind. He was Hal Jordan and he was a Green Lantern above anything else. Even if he abandoned the Corps for his own ego, trying and failing to play the hero.

He repeated his mantra as he hit that rock over and over again. His name was Hal Jordan. He was from Earth in sector 2814, and it was a planet that had felt like home at some point in his life, a long time ago. That he had family in the form of his brother from blood and his brothers in arms. That he was the son of Martin and Jessica, that he wore Martin’s jacket like a life vest. He wished he had worn it at that moment, instead of that long flowing robe that he had finally admitted was probably a bad fashion choice.

That, above all else, he was a Green Lantern. He was stronger than Parallax, he could be stronger than anything.

“Hey. Gauntlet,” Hal said, gritting his teeth that chattered from all the energy coursing through his body, “what day is it anyway? On Earth, I mean.”

The Gauntlet whirred to life, something that the ring never had to do. Something that he’d make sure the ring he’d create wouldn’t have to do.

“February 20th.” It said in his ear, and Hal had to laugh.

It was his birthday. Of course it was. He didn’t even know how old he was, something else that Parallax had robbed from him. But, in a way, it was fitting. Reinvention on the day of his best excuse for a new beginning, how perfect could it be.

“Great. Remind me to buy myself a cake.” Hal said dryly, a grin spreading across his face.  
“Noted.” The Gauntlet said, devoid of any humor. 

And Hal laughed again. He was changing, glowing a radioactive, bright green. It felt good, he could really feel what willpower was for once, coursing through his body like it was his blood. Willpower had always been abstract, a concept that he understood because it was his life, but something he hadn’t ever had the words to describe until he became Willpower itself.

It was pain and sacrifice, like the feeling of taking a bullet for someone who didn’t deserve it. It was stubbornness in the face of anger, kindness in the face of opposition. Doing something that could get you fired from a shitty job that you needed so desperately, just because it was wholly the right thing to do. Willpower burned inside of his chest brighter than the sun, brighter than anything else.

He was made of Willpower, of Green light. It coursed through him, simultaneously like a blessing and a curse. It was his best and worst features rolled into one strange descriptor. 

His name was Hal Jordan. He was a Green Lantern above anything else, above being a friend, a brother, a son, a _boyfriend_ or a lover, a member of the Justice League. None of that mattered more than the oath that gave him his best days and his worst heartbreak.

His name was Hal Jordan and he was changing, becoming Will as he created something entirely new from a rock he had found in a cave.

And he could fix everything.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! You can find me at these various places online, feel free to hit me up about this fic or some of my other ones!
> 
> [ Fic Blog. ](https://fanfictionolivia.tumblr.com/)   
>  [ Twitter. ](https://twitter.com/fficolivia)


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